The Trump Effect: Can Spread Infection

Africa
New pandemic threatens after Trump's withdrawal of support for Africa

Joachim Kerpner

Published 2025-02-26 20.22

 

Healthcare workers in Congo during an outbreak of Ebola in 2019. Photo: AP

Virus outbreaks in Central Africa have increased in a very worrying way in recent months.

At the same time, the US's vital support for African healthcare has been completely cut off - which could lead to the development and spread of resistant HIV viruses worldwide.

- The US is betraying agreements in such a brutal way. It is terribly irresponsible to withdraw all resources overnight, says Professor Anna Mia Ekström.

Quick version

• Virus outbreaks in Central Africa have increased sharply, with several serious diseases such as hemorrhagic fever and mpox, and a new unknown infection in northwestern Congo-Kinshasa.
• The United States has completely withdrawn its humanitarian support for African healthcare, which is significantly worsening the situation by limiting the possibilities for an effective response and management of the virus outbreaks.
• The situation could lead to the development and spread of resistant HIV viruses globally, while the shortage of medicines and healthcare workers increases the risk of deaths from other infectious diseases.

The latest alarming virus outbreak on the African continent was discovered on January 21. Since then, 53 have died out of 430 known cases of what may be a new type of deadly hemorrhagic fever. Testing for other infectious agents is ongoing.

Three children in an inaccessible village in northwestern Kongo-Kinshasa ate or came into contact with a bat, which carried the deadly infection.

– Of the more than 50 infected people who died in two villages, many died within 48 hours, says Anna Mia Ekström, professor of global infectious epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet.

Various types of hemorrhagic fever and other deadly viral diseases have spread in Africa before, but with a few years' interval. Now the outbreaks come one after another.

• In August 2024, an international emergency was declared after the viral disease mpox began to spread rapidly in Congo-Kinshasa. So far, the outbreak has claimed at least 5,600 lives in the country, and the infection has increased in neighboring countries in recent weeks.
• Between September and November 2024, the Marburg hemorrhagic fever spread in the same area. 23 percent of those infected in Rwanda died.
• In January 2025, an Ebola outbreak occurred in Uganda, where the mortality rate was close to 70 percent. Health care workers in particular died.
• And so on January 21st of this year, the first reports of yet another deadly infection came, in northwestern Congo-Kinshasa.

Professor Anna Mia Ekström notes that new outbreaks of serious diseases have occurred virtually every month in recent times.i

Anna Mia Ekström is a professor of global infectious disease epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. Photo: Martin Stenmark / Carolina Byrmo

“Can’t stop it”

– It’s an extremely serious situation. It’s burning everywhere, and they can’t stop the fires, she says.

The African disease control agency Africa CDC stated in a press release on Friday that a new pandemic could start to spread from Congo-Kinshasa, after the rebel group M23 attacked and captured two cities in the country. Now, nearly 1.2 million people are displaced in eastern Congo-Kinshasa, including 400 smallpox patients who were previously being treated in hospitals.

The situation is being greatly complicated by the fact that the US under Donald Trump has frozen all medical aid to Africa, says Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya:

– The combination of uncertainty, lack of money and lack of medical interventions means that we are playing with fire, he says.

Anna Mia Ekström says that the lack of resources has become much worse since the US withdrew. The aid agency USAID – which accounted for 42 percent of all humanitarian aid in the world – is in ruins. Hundreds of thousands of health workers in Africa have suddenly been fired. Infection control tracking no longer works in many African countries.

Healthcare workers care for an Ebola-infected patient in Congo in 2019. Photo: AP

“No testing”

– USAID and the American infectious disease control agency CDC were often the first to arrive at the scene of virus outbreaks in Africa. Now there is no longer anyone flying in, no mobile laboratories, no testing or protective equipment where the outbreaks occur, often in inaccessible terrain, says Anna Mia Ekström.

The US has also withdrawn funding for HIV medicine for 20 million people and all preventive work including HIV testing in Africa. This has already increased the spread of HIV, while HIV infection in turn increases the risk of dying from other infectious diseases such as measles. Regular healthcare is not being provided when the few remaining healthcare workers are increasingly having to focus on serious diseases. At the same time, antibiotics, for example, have become a scarce commodity.

African CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya. Photo: Africa Cdc

"Can lead to resistance"

- Everything is slipping into an incredibly dangerous chaotic mess. It is terribly irresponsible of the US. The World Health Organization WHO, which previously received 20 percent of its contributions from the US, is also greatly weakened, says Anna Mia Ekström.

She notes that the lack of HIV medicine can lead to HIV resistance, when people try to save on their HIV medicine and spread out the medicine supplies they have left.

What can happen if the rest of the world does not support Africa more? 

– We are seeing a very rapid spread of different infectious diseases at the same time. And viruses know no borders. There is great concern that resistant HIV viruses will start to spread. Millions of young people's lives are at stake, says Anna Mia Ekström.